Word.ws English Dictionary

strain every nerve

strain every nerve verb: to make every possible effort to do something; to do one's utmost.

Verb

strain every nerve (third-person singular simple present strains every nerve, present participle straining every nerve, simple past and past participle strained every nerve)

  1. To make every possible effort to do something; to do one's utmost.
    • In this very great emergency one might have expected the Western Region, notwithstanding the considerable difficulties involved in finding paths for a greatly increased Paddington-Wolverhampton train service, to strain every nerve to keep passengers in the trains rather than letting them stray away...1960 March, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 174

Forms of strain every nerve

third-person singular presentstrains every nerve
present participlestraining every nerve
past participlestrained every nerve
paststrained every nerve

Questions about strain every nerve

What does strain every nerve mean?
Strain every nerve means to make every possible effort to do something; to do one's utmost.
What part of speech is strain every nerve?
Strain every nerve is a verb.
What is the past tense of strain every nerve?
The past tense of strain every nerve is strained every nerve.

Words near strain every nerve in the dictionary

  1. strain burst
  2. strain bursts
  3. strain courtesy
  4. strain energies
  5. strain energy
  6. strain every nerve
  7. strain gauge
  8. strain gauges
  9. strain hardening
  10. strain insulator
  11. strain insulators

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: strain every nerve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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